At CityLabs Kriston Capps writes on the brouhaha over the Department of Justice’s recent criticism of Ferguson. It can be boiled down into a single sentence: the DoJ is asking Ferguson to do something that is beyond its power. Here’s the peroration:
Yesterday, I wrote that Justice’s review of Ferguson, however factually accurate and morally necessary, misses the forest for the trees. (And they are necessary: These guides will be reviewed by law-enforcement agencies far beyond the borders of St. Louis.) But it seems like the department’s recommendations for reform are designed to extinguish the flames on one tree when the whole forest is on fire.
Here is the 13th and final recommendation from Justice for reform in Ferguson:
13. Collaborate with other municipalities and the State of Missouri to implement reforms
That’s the whole ball game. But a generic guideline suggesting these municipalities “collaborate” doesn’t go far enough.
Even if Ferguson were to get it right: Could Florissant? Where a part-time judge making two appearances per month earns $50,000 per year? Where the prosecuting attorney “works roughly 4% of a fulltime job, but earns 145% of a full-time public defender’s salary”? Could Bel-Ridge? Where 83 percent of the residents are black, 42 percent are below the federal poverty level, and warrants outnumber households 2 to 1?
These are just three of the cities in the greater St. Louis area where residents are suffering. Many of the municipal courts operating across St. Louis County may be too broken to be reformed. There is at least one potential solution to these structural problems: The cities could be reconstituted through unification. But that is a step toward reform that’s beyond the Department of Justice.
The reform being demanded is beyond Ferguson’s or St. Louis County’s powers. It’s within the state pf Missouri’s powers but to accomplish it the state would need to act undemocratically and tyrannically.
Is that the Obama Administration’s view of government? An autocratic and benevolent tyrant that marches in to right wrongs? Benevolent this time, that is.
I’m increasingly of the mind that we might be better off with County governments instead of municipal ones. At least in those states where counties aren’t the size of other entire states.
Where 83 percent of the residents are black, 42 percent are below the federal poverty level, and warrants outnumber households 2 to 1?
No one seems to ask if there’s a good reason that warrants outnumber households. Such as, for example, that a lot of crimes are being committed?
The citizens of these deeply flawed municipalities can rid themselves of them by simply voting to dissolve them. Missouri law permits the residents of a municipality to petition the state legislature to dissolve their postage stamp town with a vote to follow. The unincorporated land could then reapply for incorporation with a viable number of households. In short, the powers that be don’t have to be cajoled into doing a thing.